Metallic make-up lets you launch drones with a wink

When Katia Vega winks, strange things happen: a miniature drone takes to the air, or a hundred LEDs in her hair sparkle like a Christmas tree. It works because she has developed a range of conducting cosmetics that let her activate electronics with a flip of her eyelids.

Demonstrated on 10 October at the Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces conference at the University of St Andrews, UK, the aim of her "beauty technology" is to provide an alternative way to make quick micro-interactions – like those possible with wearable computers like Google Glass.Smartphone users have to fiddle with their phones for half a minute to take a picture, whereas Glass only requires a quick tap on the side to accomplish the same task.. With Vega's "Blinklifier" it could be done with a wink. "We use voluntary movements to amplify intentions – using our body as a new input device," she says.

Vega, a computer scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has developed metallised false eyelashes and conducting eyeshadow that complete a very low voltage circuit when she winks. Both are said to be chemically safe for use on the skin.

iShadow

"Blinking is sensed via the conductive eyeshadow and the information can be sent to a circuit inside a headband, perhaps activating something via an infrared beam," Vega says. The trick is to only accept exaggerated, voluntary winks longer than half a second – the circuit does not respond to involuntary eye blinks.

So far she has used this technology to launch a handheld miniature drone and activated an LED display worn on her head. Although she says she is talking to cosmetics companies about exploiting the idea commercially, no deals have yet been done. "I am still in negotiations," she says.

Meanwhile, she is also investigating other wearable technologies with her colleague Hugo Fuks. The pair has looked at false fingernails with hidden RFID tags that can be used to open electric doors – or replace the smart cards used to access public transport, like London's Oyster cards.

Blinking outside the box

"A key benefit of wearable technology is that you don't need to remember to bring it with you," says Lucy Dunne, a wearable technology designer at the University of Minnesota in St Paul. "Beauty products have the same potential as our clothes as a vehicle for interacting with technology. Imagine your eyelashes interacting with your conductive-ink tattoo."

"This is a clever use of materials and, more importantly, it highlights how today's beauty products could be re-purposed to create computational interfaces," says Thad Starner, Google's technical lead for Glass and a researcher in wearable computers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Starner can also see other applications for Vega's metallised eyelashes: "Using an electromagnetic field at the right frequency, a simple on or off-body radio could detect blinking of the conductive eyelashes at a distance – without the need for conductive eyeliner. So the artist would have greater flexibility in the placement of the electronics."

The research has inspired Starner to try it out himself. "Hmm," he says. "I need to find an oscilloscope, an electrolysis bath… and a Sally Beauty Supply."

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